I’m a bit confused between Columbia and Berkeley. For starters, which univ. has a better cs undergrad department? Also, being an international student I would find the temperature of California more feasible to live in but I do prefer Columbia as it is an Ivy League.,
So which univ. should I choose?
Just remember that California is a very BIG state and the weather in Northern California is very different from the weather in Southern California.
Were you already admitted to both schools?
If you like water, long showers, avoid the droughts of CA.
If you want to work in the east (NY area), then Columbia.
If you want to work in the west (California area), then Berkeley.
Both schools have phenomenal academics in undergrad and differentiating them is quite idiotic.
Personally, I would be biased to say Columbia but then again, chose the two depending on where you would like to work for internships, future jobs, etc.
Now, before anyone says anything else, yes, many students in Columbia work in Google at California, etc. (not sure about Berkeley with the east coast). However, due to the nature of Columbia’s location in NYC, it is more natural to work there instead of in California.
Also, I personally feel like too many CS majors are in California right now… Like really, shouldn’t students learn supply and demand? 
I am sorry but at the undergraduate level Berkeley is not on the same level as columbia in terms of academics, opportunities, prestige etc. Berkeley has many amazing departments and is top notch for many graduate degrees, but its undergraduate quality, selectivity etc is simply not on Columbia’s level.
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Personally, if I had to chose between the two, I would chose Columbia University in a heartbeat (again, huge bias coming from me but still… 
)
Being next to New York is a beautiful thing. All the musuems (including some of the best in the world) are more or less free with ur Columbia ID. And trust me, seeing some of those is a learning in itself. The appreciation and the awe you attain from seeing the sheer size of the museums itself cannot be compared to simple learning. Being able to physically be in the museum and see the achievement mankind has made is just breathtaking… added with how beautiful nature is.
You have access to some of the best restaurants, shops, etc. in THE WORLD.
You have the most FAMOUS park in the WORLD. Central Park. Its sheer size and the fact that it is in New York is … wow.
You have heavy discounts to Broadway, arguably the best place for seeing theatrical shows.
You have access to NYC for internships, work, etc. and being the best university in the state itself, there is an immense advantage when applying for such roles.
Unlike California area, NYC, which is the 2nd most CS 
zone, there isn’t as much competition. C’mon. Let’s be frank. All the universities in the West seem like all “CS” (it’s mostly all techy stuffs). But the East? No. We even got WallStreet, etc. with that culture.
You have access to the Core Curriculum of Columbia. Where else can you read and learn all about the masterpieces of Western music, civilization, literature, art history, etc. in a small group of around 17 people?
Being the best university in the state, many companies truly look up to Columbia (and I am not exaggerating there. It is apparent in interviews in which you know they already assume you are super intelligent by the fact that you attend Columbia Univ)
Your peers all SUPPORT each other because they all know it isn’t easy to get accepted here without being an incredible person yourself.
Oh and, ofc, most of all, many of the students here (a higher concentration percentage wise) have done some of the most phenomenal things OUTSIDE academics (and many in academics like winning national or international awards). Simply put, there are a higher concentration of more interesting people
There isn’t much if any emphasis on sports (this could actually be a con if you enjoy “sportsy” atmosphere in college. Truth is, Columbia is pretty much about let’s really study and learn from the classics)
Columbia’s core curriculum influences other humanities courses such that many of your courses uses primary texts, not secondary. When most (if not all) universities mainly make students read like textbooks (which Columbia does too), Columbia mostly focuses the students to read the copies of (translated to english) the actual text. Yes, it’s a lot more tedious but it is much more rewarding.
And most importantly, the atmosphere helps you change your perspective. From the students to even the professors, everyone believes “you” can change the world and deserve respect since “you” no matter what are at the top of the world academically (yes, this notion exists and although it may sound pretentious, it really isn’t -don’t take it bad way- and it helps bring a motivation for you to work higher)
Now, I’m not sure about much of Berkeley so no comments on that (and you should know you are in Columbia’s college confidential. There will be some heavy bias).
Also, to @Penn95 's post. Maybe he is right. Maybe not. I just will not comment on that issue since it brings lots of … debates
His basis might not be completely off as STEM classes in every universities are curved relative to the student body. And technically, you could argue the average student body is more academically qualified than the average body in Berkeley (remember, many of your classes is with the whole student body, not students of your majors unlike how many people try to persuade you). Then again, test scores don’t mean much so
Berkeley ACT: 1940 - 2270
Columbia SEAS SAT: 2160 - 2330 (don’t forget the avg student here also takes many more tests like AP and SAT II too with a bunch of national/international awards)
Yes, test scores don’t mean much but also don’t forget you are graded RELATIVELY to your peers. If you have not realized from this test score, you should find that the top 25% of Berkeley student is most likely the bottom 40th percentile of students in Columbia implying the average student in Columbia had academic scores that would make them some of the top candidates (academically) in Berkeley for admissions.
Hope this blatantly 1 sided post convinced you for Columbia Hope to see you there~
But quite frankly, both are great schools and you really should differentiate more by east or west than anything else…
Oh and something I found interesting today:
https://ecf.fairsey.com/#!/faq
It’s a career fair that was held today in MIT (ehh, not interested myself but I found something quite intriguing -probably cause I never cared-):
Candidate Profiles: MIT, Harvard, All other Ivy League schools, Young professionals, Greater Boston area colleges
Pretty much, it seems some career fairs are limited to those affiliated with certain schools. Ehh, just something that might (you know, convince you to come to Columbia)
To answer your questions, the CS dept. of Berkeley is considered to better and weather is lot more temperate in the Bay Area.
@Falcon1
This student is currently not going to grad school. Yes, Berkeley’s CS grad is ranked top 5 in the world (and its prestige like it or not trickles down to the undergrads as well). However, that does not imply the CS program undergrad is top 5 in the world. Yes, I do agree that companies because of the top grad also looks favorably in the undergrad but in no way does that constitute “better” for undergrad.
One can argue that Columbia though a top 15 CS grad program is ranked #4 in the USNews and thus has a much more sophisticated undergrad body as Berkeley while a top 5 CS grad program is ranked #20 in the USNews undergrad.
And considering the first 2 years of your studies is usually general requirements in almost every college, it is almost impossible to state that either college is “better” in undergrad for the major. Quite frankly, Calc 1 is Calc 1 anywhere (unless you want to talk about Apostol’s, Rudin’s, Spivak’s, etc. but then again, those are exceptions, not the rules) and classes in general are graded in curves. So technically, your class will be more shaped by the student body because your grades are in comparison to your peers, not the “graduate program ranking”.
Seriously, chose like this:
Do you want to spend 4 years in NYC or in Bay Area?
Academic wise, both are top notch and differentiating between the top 20 is just meaningless. No company will ever be like “OMG, this guy graduated from a top 6 college, this other guy graduated from top 7. Guess other guy is out”. NO no NO! If that were the case, then that would imply CS is already over-flooded and anyone who didn’t go to the top 20 schools would be jobless in the field (let’s be practical here can we?)
I know CollegeConfidential loves to differentiate rankings and make it sound like one is exponentially better but quite honestly, all the top schools are academically fantastic in undergrad.
And weather…
I heard Bay Area is having troubles with droughts xD
I went to both schools – Columbia undergrad and Berkeley for grad school. You can’t go wrong w/ either school. The weather is definitely better in Berkeley – no doubt about it. I loved Columbia, I loved Cal – if you get into both you are lucky!
@AccCreate OP asked two questions and I answered both of them as simply as possible. Stanford, CMU, MIT and Berkeley (in no particular order) are the four top undergraduate CS schools in the country. UWashington is up and coming and has been attracting a lot of top professors. Harvard is making a push and is very good in theory but is still small even after hiring 6 of the 12 new professors they are bringing on board.
Columbia has had some key hires, particularly in machine learning but the department has nowhere near the depth and breadth of the undergraduate offerings that Berkeley has. I stand by my original assessment that Berkeley is a better school for CS. All the other stuff you cited about the “sophistication” of the student bodies is your subjective opinion which you are entitled to.
@Falcon1
There are no official undergrad Computer Science rankings.
I can argue that your citation about “undergraduate CS schools” are your own subjective opinions which you are entitled to.
To the op, understand that outside the silly rankings (for undergrad), the outside world doesn’t care. Harvey Mudd is a good example of this. One of the best STEM undergrad schools yet because it does not have a graduate school, it is hardly mentioned. However, the people hiring you knows the school and that’s all that matters.
Both Columbia and Berkeley in this regard too will open doors.
Columbia will give you an advantage if you want to work in NYC.
Berkeley will give you an advantage if you want to work in Bay Area.
Don’t let this collegeconfidential site bubble confuse you.
I am myself a CS major and have peers working in actual tech industries (including facebook, google, ebay). Some of them are from Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UVa, Emory, UWaterloo, WuStL, UW-Madison, U of Washington, UIUC, Georgia Tech, etc. and many do agree that the quality of CS in their respective universities were world class.
In addition, I have not heard that going to a certain school had closed doors for them. In fact, of the graduated peers, those peers all had similar opportunities regardless of graduating from Berkeley EECS or WuStL CS (which is not known for CS).
And to @Falcon1 comment about subdepartmental rankings. Once again, I will like to reiterate, the student is not going to graduate school and the number of undergrad courses does not mean much. If your degree makes it almost impossible for you to take all the undergraduate courses, then what is the point? I don’t care if my university has a starcraft course or not (which yes is not CS but you get the point), all I care is that the university supplies a solid education in the field I want and open doors (which both Columbia and Berkeley does).
In addition, if you go solely by number of courses for undergrad, then state schools will naturally win out. By your sayings, shouldn’t the top CS schools be UMich, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, UW-Madison, UT Austin, UCLA?
The difference of ranking and perception are insignificant to your own performance in college. At a certain threshold (certainly at Columbia at Berkeley level), the rankings for undergrad don’t mean much and anyone who states otherwise has not seen the actual workforce.
And technically if you only care about graduate rankings, places like Harvey Mudd, Williams, Swathmore, Rice Univ, Vanderbilt Univ, Notre Dame Univ, Dartmouth Univ, Brown Univ, etc. would not get as much attention it does in CC. I am sure you know those schools I have mentioned above and that many are more undergrad focused which hurts the graduate rankings (if the school have any), does not mean much for the undergrad body as the outside world sees those various schools as top.
Also, UPittsburgh is one of the world’s best place to study philosophy for grad. Does that mean students should forgo an acceptance from a place like Princeton in undergrad? You make judgements on that. It is extremely hard to “rank undergrad” as rankings are mostly based on academic performance and research.
That said, I personally think the best undergrad CS is MIT, Stanford, CalTech, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd. So… wth? with probably the most rigorous CS undergrad being Harvey Mudd, CalTech, Rice, UIUC, Brown, MIT, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon.
To add to the previous statement, I do agree that MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Berkeley are known to be the best Computer Science schools in the country.
However, I do want the op to know that the difference is negligible in the workforce and it’s more of east vs west for 4 years and that there are technically no such thing as undergraduate cs rankings.
Many of the students I know came to Columbia even after being accepted to places like Carnegie Mellon CS or Berkeley EECS or MIT. None have regrets and are in fact glad of their choices.
Columbia’s culture centers around the great classics (at least you get that kind of vibe in the school buildings although like 99% of SEAS students avoid those courses altogether) and if you want to enjoy that culture (and the NYC culture), come Columbia.
If you like the idea of California, then go there.
I’m sure you will succeed either way. There is no bad decisions here. You are comparing 2 of some of the top universities in the world. Go with your feels.
4 years of your life. Where would you like to spend best?
when it comes to choosing an institution for undergraduate studies, the overall quality, strength, prestige of the institution also comes significantly into play, and rightfully so because decision about majors/fields of study/career choices are much more fluid as an undergrad. This is why prob most people would choose columbia over berkeley for cs undergrad, even tho berkeley has a better cs department on paper and also why most people would choose harvard over columbia, even though harvard s CS department is ranked lower.
You should note that UC–and UC Berkeley in particular–are facing severe financial problems. UC Berkeley has just announced a strategic review where everything is under review. There are problems with class size, course cancellations, inadequate facilities etc. UC Berkeley is a fantastic university but unfortunately it is going through a rough patch.
Rankings aside, I think that there is no doubt that UC Berkeley has a stronger CS department than Columbia. I also think there is no doubt that that is pretty much irrelevant for deciding which school is a better fit for a particular student interested in studying CS. Both schools have tremendous resources, but the environments are completely different. I have no doubt that the OP could get a top CS education at either, and I think that deciding where to go undergraduate should seldom come down to a single department.